October in Down East Maine is a a colorful interlude between the green and gold summer and the gray and white winter. It’s the last chance to see some favorite flora and fauna and other phenomena. It’s also the time to put on warmer clothes, to eat heartier foods, to see redder sunsets in earlier darkness, and, at the end, to celebrate the rising of the spirits of Halloween.
As usual, we’ll begin our “Wish-You-Were-Here” postcards with the four iconic views of coastal Maine that we record every month: the view of Mount Desert Island from Brooklin’s Amen Ridge; the “Harbor House” overlooking Brooklin’s Naskeag Harbor; the old red boat house in Blue Hill’s Conary Cove, and the view of that near-mountain called Blue Hill from across Blue Hill Bay:
To those four national; favorites we add four local October favorites: a land view of the south face of Blue Hill; the floats and pier at the renowned Brooklin Boat Yard; the leaf-shedding Camperdown elm in the Brooklin Cemetery, and the Baptist Church beside a rising country road in North Sedgwick:
October is when the leaves of our flora give a glowing last hurrah in multiple shades of red, orange, yellow, purple, green, and bronze:
It’s a time of profusion for wild fruits and berries and cool weather fungi. Among the most interesting are the ancient, abandoned apple trees that drop their fruit in fallow fields:
There are also the differing forms of October fruit clustures offered by wild mountain ash, weeping crabapple, beautiful but invasive Asian bittersweet, and winterberry.
On the ground, the warm colored false chanterelles and squirrel-nibbled Russula mushrooms arise from the earth overnight like magic.
Our woods were dry and the ponds low this October because we’ve been in a severe drought that presents wildfire dangers. Nonetheless, wallking among the tall trees and viewing the ponds always is a visual and aromatic pleasure:
Of course the garden flora goes the way of all flora in October and provides interesting images. Here we see an out-the-window collection of trees and bushes; the last poppy and mini-sunflower; light rain in the bird bath, and store-bought fall flowers:
In the furry fall fauna category, our white-tailed deer grew into their gray winter coats and a pesky bachelor beaver (whom we’ve named Bernie) decided to build a house (and beaver ballroom, it looks like) in one of our ponds:
As for feathered fauna, we’re on the Atlantic Flyway and see many migrants on their way south in October, including wedges of Canada geese on the wing. On the ground, resident wild turkeys, both adults and first-year youngsters, are easier to see in the fall-mowed fields.
Resident downy woodpeckers carve out their individual winter shelters in October; resident herring gulls rest as much as possible, as usual; greater yellow legs sandpipers pause to peck through rockweed on their way south, and winter resident bufflehead ducks move in:
We should mention that October is the last month that we see bumblebees and monarch butterflies in action:
October also is a time of change on the waterfront. Many of the coastal lobster fishermen start to bring in their traps during the month because that fishing season ends for most of them in the fall. Recreational boats also are brought up “on the hard” during the month and can create traffic jams in the process.
Below are the last two boats of 2025 moored in Great Cove: EO, the 12 1/2-foot sailboat and LUCILLE, the refurbished lobster boat. They were brought out of the water in late October. Also below you’ll see VULCAN, the moorings boat, replacing summer ball mooring buoys with more ice-friendly winter stick buoys.
Of course, October ends on Halloween when the spirits are supposed to arise and join us. But those spirits and their wizards always come here a few days early to enjoy Vacationland and its bounty:
The guords above remind us that October also is the beginning of stew season and the time for other hearty foods, including lasanga. Tomatoes and squash fresh from the vines and a wide variety of fall apples were in ample supply here, ready for the picking in orchards and stores.
By a quirk in the calendar, this October’s full moon was both the Harvest Moon and the Hunters’ Moon. It rose molten red in the twilight and turned to pewter once it sailed high above our gritty atmosphere:
Finally, we leave you with an October sundown over Great Cove. As our view of the sun becomes more southerly, the sunsets get more and more spectacular, making up for the loss of color elsewhere. That’s always something to look forward to in winter.
(All images in this post were taken in Down East Maine during October of 2025.)